Developing Countries Have a Different Agenda

The Future of Capitalism is a hot topic at Davos this year. That’s partly because it’s the kind of highbrow topic on which this forum thrives. But it also reflects the peculiar nature of this moment in the global economy.

As Nouriel Roubini pointed out earlier in the week, it’s the representatives of developed countries that are currently filled with angst over capitalism’s future. They are the ones loaded up with debt, drifting toward protectionism, and questioning the fundamental values of market economics.

In the meantime, it’s developing countries, unmoved by angst over the side effects of market economics, who are seen providing the dynamism for global growth.

In a session Thursday afternoon, Former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo said the obsession with the debate over markets versus governments misses the point for most developing countries. Private initiative is the critical driver of growth, he said. But “we are not going to have a strong economy if we don’t have a strong, functioning state, with the rule of law.”